EDITORIAL: No World Series for local cable subscribers?

We're three weeks away from the World Series and the possibility that a significant chunk of Litchfield County residents won't be able to watch it. Sound far-fetched? We'd have said the same thing if you'd told us that New York Giants and other NFL games would be blacked out for the first four weeks of the season - and counting - this fall.

But as of Monday, there was no progress and no end in sight for a standoff between Cablevision and the Tribune Co., which owns WTIC/Fox Connecticut.

In addition to the NFL, Cablevision subscribers have missed out on the season premieres for popular Fox shows such as American Idol, The Family Guy and The Simpsons.

People are angry. Torrington Mayor Ryan Bingham even stepped in to collect city residents' complaints and forward them on to Fox Connecticut and Cablevision.

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But that hasn't put much pressure on the two sides to come to an agreement.

In fact, Jim Maiella, a spokesman for Cablevision, said that "customer reaction has been minimal."

That was in response to a question about whether the company had seen a significant decrease in the number of subscribers it has in Connecticut.

In other words, we can complain as much as we want about missing the Giants game, or The Simpsons, just as we can complain about higher rates.

Unless and until Cablevision subscribers actually start canceling and switching to DirecTV or another cable alternative, it won't have much effect on the company's decision-making process.

According to Maiella, Cablevision has agreed to pay "every penny" that Tribune, which also owns the Hartford Courant, has asked for the rights to carry Fox Connecticut.

The problem is a dispute over how much it will pay for other Tribune-owned stations, including WGN out of Chicago.

Until that dispute is resolved, Cablevision says that Tribune is choosing to black out all of its stations, including Fox Connecticut.

It alleges that Tribune "has failed to deliver a new proposal in more than a month."

Tribune spokesman Jessica Bellucci said that the company is working with Cablevision to "get a resolution," but refused to elaborate.

If it's true that Cablevision has agreed to pay full freight for Fox Connecticut, then perhaps local cable subscribers' ire should be directed at the parent company of Fox Connecticut and the Hartford Courant.

How many of us are burning for WGN Chicago to be restored to the local Cablevision lineup? What? You don't miss the Tyra Banks Show and Jerry Springer reruns?

It makes sense as a negotiating ploy that Tribune would use a network station that local NFL and Fox primetime TV lineup fans can't live without.

But the fact it needs to in order to have any leverage to win higher fees for stations such as WGN shows, perhaps, how weak the argument might be for those fees.

And in the meantime, the company that owns Fox Connecticut and the Hartford Courant is sticking it to 50,000 Connecticut households, and appears willing to let the World Series be blacked out in addition to the rest of the NFL season. One wonders when Fox Connecticut's advertisers will catch on.

Tribune has done a fine job so far in convincing viewers that Cablevision is to blame for the Fox Connecticut blackout. It's easy for us to make that leap. From billing and marketing practices, to customer service, to forcing channel lineups down your throat at increasing expense, they don't deserve the benefit of the doubt.

But if Fox Connecticut could put itself back on the air tomorrow at the full rate it has requested from Cablevision, it really does appear that the Tribune Company is screwing Connecticut TV viewers in order to make an extra buck elsewhere.